Cowboy Crafts Corner

[mistertwister]

Who: Okie and you!
What: Quilting, sewing lessons, and being weirdly okay about dying
When: Early January
Where: The buffet

Come one, come all to the Cowboy Crafts Corner! Your host, Okie, has placed a quickly made poster or two around the ship, and has set up shop on a bunch of pushed together buffet tables one quiet evening. Among the supplies to be found are a huge pile of Tommy Bahama shirts, collected in armfulls over the course of several days, a set of square plates borrowed from the diner, a handful of markers, one pair of scissors, two steak knives, and every sewing kit he could find in the general store.

The theme of this day's project will be quilting! There will be stations for stenciling, where participants will use the plates and markers to mark squares in the shirts, cutting, where participants will use one sharp implement or another to cut said squares out of the shirts, and sewing, where the individual squares will be made into other, much bigger squares. Okie will be keeping tabs on the stock of shirts available for disassembly and offering assistance or teaching around the sewing stations.

The main rule is to have fun! Secondary rules include not using the cutting implements on any other participants and telling Number 6 if he asks that Okie really promises to clean up after and return the plates and knives.

Comments

[mistertwister]

"Gotta say, wakin' up from it really helps a guy feel better 'bout dyin'. Can't imagine what it was like for the people that had to find us either. I get a feelin' I got off on the easy end of this whole thing."

[prince_of_beasts]

"Hm. Another place we're in agreement. I'd be much worse off if I'd been through that farce of a trial -- if I'd survived, feeling like I'd failed everyone who died."

Dimitri pauses his work, propping his elbows on the table.

" ... Dedue had to find me," he admits. "I can't imagine what that must have done to him."

[mistertwister]

"I think I woulda done good with the trial, actually. It's the findin' that'd get me, I think. From what I hear the folks that found me didn't know me, an' anybody that did was either also dead or busy findin' someone else."

Okie mirrors Dimitri, stopping to let the table hold him up.

"Steve was right there with me. I can shoot fuckin' lightning from my hands, I shoulda been able to do somethin'. Didn't even buy him a second."

[prince_of_beasts]

"If what I've heard about the killer is true, none of us could have done anything. It had the element of surprise, and power I doubt anyone but the Captain could rival."

... hm. That thought goes in the back of Dimitri's mind, with a stew of others that have been simmering quietly.

Dimitri picks up his knife again. His tone is solemn, but too casual for what he says. "Death has no care for 'should'. Strength and skill can alter the odds, but in the end, there is no rhyme or reason to when and how it comes. Our positions could just as easily have been reversed."

"Does that mean you woke up alone?"

[mistertwister]

Okie tries to think of a reply to his friend's words of wisdom, but all he can bring himself to do is huff.

"I woke up alone, yeah. Like it was a dream. Can't even say a bad dream 'cause I was dead 'fore I even realized what was happenin'. Had to learn for sure I got murdered over breakfast."

[prince_of_beasts]

Dimitri hisses a sigh through his teeth. "I'm sorry. If I can -- if it happens again -- " though it's not so much if as when -- "I'll be there. Bad enough it happened. It's worse when there's no one to help."

He can't say 'at least it was quick' to the person it happened to. He thinks it, though.

[mistertwister]

"I..." Sigh. "Would appreciate that. I'll try to have your back, too. For what it's worth."

Okie picks up a needle and rolls it in his fingers, not quite back to doing any quilt work.

"It feels... nice, not dealin' with this shit alone."

[prince_of_beasts]

Dimitri looks up to offer Okie a fragile smile. Stiff, but the effort counts.

"It's worth a great deal. ... that's the one advantage to all of this. We don't have to face it alone."

[mistertwister]

The smile is returned, warmly.

"Yer good folk, Mitri." Then, a little playfully, "I don't care what they say 'bout ya."

[prince_of_beasts]

"Tha -- "

Blink.

"Who says what about me?"

[mistertwister]

If Dimitri could see the mask he would see Okie going off like severely nervous fireworks.

"That's- no one- I didn't mean-

"It's a joke, Mitri. It was supposed to be funny but I guess it's a joke you gotta hear at least twice to know that."

[prince_of_beasts]

Dimitri coughs. "O-oh. Apologies, I'm not very ... good at jokes. Thank you, though. And likewise. I'm glad to have met you, even under the circumstances."

He's not blushing when he says that. He just means it, warm and sincere.

"By the way -- where did you learn to sew?"

[mistertwister]

Dimitri might not be blushing, but Okie sure is.

"I learned from my ma. My folks both made their money bein' handy one way or the other. They was always keen to teach an' as far as my ma was concerned i was always keen to learn."